New Delhi: In a retort to Islamabad’s reaction to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent remarks on a podcast show, India on Tuesday (March 18) said that Pakistan’s “promotion and sponsorship of cross-border terrorism” is impeding peace in the surrounding region and that it must vacate the Indian territory “under its illegal and forcible occupation”.
Noting that Pakistan “has once again made some comments” on Jammu and Kashmir, external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that “the world knows that the real issue is Pakistan’s active promotion and sponsorship of cross-border terrorism.
“In fact”, he continued, “this is the biggest roadblock to peace and security in the region.”
Jaiswal added: “Instead of spreading lies, Pakistan should vacate Indian territory under its illegal and forcible occupation,” referring to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
A day earlier, Pakistan’s foreign office had said in response to Modi’s comments on Pakistan during a podcast interview to Lex Fridman that India’s “fictitious narrative of victimhood cannot hide its involvement in fomenting terrorism on Pakistan’s soil and the state-sanctioned oppression in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir”.
“Instead of blaming others”, India ought to “reflect on its own record of orchestrating targeted assassinations, subversion and terrorism in foreign territories”, Islamabad said.
As for what Modi had said on Sunday, Islamabad called his remarks “misleading” and “one-sided”.
“They conveniently omit the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, which remains unresolved for [the] last seven decades despite India’s solemn assurances to the United Nations, Pakistan and the Kashmiri people,” the foreign office said.
Denying Modi’s statement that Pakistan had rebuffed India’s goodwill gestures, Islamabad charged that “peace and stability in South Asia have remained hostage to India’s rigid approach and hegemonic ambitions”.
Asked by Fridman during the three-hour-long interview what he thought would pave the way for friendship and peace between India and Pakistan, Modi said that following Partition, Pakistan instead of being ‘grateful’ to India “chose the path of consistent conflict”.
“Every time, the results of all [our] good efforts turned out to be detrimental. We hope that good sense prevails upon them and they will walk the path of good and peace,” the prime minister said.
Maintaining that the world had recognised Pakistan’s “terrorist tendency” and “terrorist mindset”, Modi added that the country has “become a centre of distress for all of the world”.
He also said that wherever there is a terrorist attack in the world, the “trail somehow ends up in Pakistan” and cited the discovery of Osama bin Laden by US forces in Abbottabad as an example.
